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Monday, October 31, 2016

As I mentioned in my Lush Halloween post yesterday, Halloween is one of my favourite times of year!

I wanted to do something simple this year, so here's what I came up with. I'm not very happy with it as I tried to use a glow-in-the-dark base underneath the makeup, and not only did it NOT glow, it also made it really hard for me to apply makeup on top, which is why some of it looks so blurry and smeary. The lighting was also pretty bad as I took it in the light of my vanity table after work, and natural lighting would have been much better! Never mind, more room for improvement next time!

Sunday, October 30, 2016

Oh my, Halloween is almost here! It's one of my favourite times of year, though regretfully, I didn't have too much time to do much about it this year. I did still come up with something though, so check back tomorrow to see what I have up my sleeve!

In the meantime, I wanted to share a quick post on the adorable offerings from one of my favourite skincare shops, Lush Cosmetics! Now, they have a tonne of stuff in their Halloween collection, but I was kindly gifted with a few of the things pictured below.

Lush Cosmetics Halloween 2016 Collection

Bath Bombs

They have a total of five bath bombs in the Halloween collection, which include the three pictured below. Monsters' Ball ($8.95) is a mash up of lime and neroli oil and smells so refreshing, Lord of Misrule ($7.95) smells spicy with its blend of patchouli and black pepper oil, and Sparkly Pumpkin ($8.95) is just a glittery gold treat.Keep reading after the jump!

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

I've got a short and sweet review post today on some pretty Clinique lippies to share! The Clinique Pop Liquid Matte Lip Colour + Primer is one of the newer releases in the Pop lipstick line, and is Clinique's response to the latest matte liquid lipstick trend. Like the others in the Pop line, this is meant to have a built-in primer to keep your pout looking freshly applied. You can read my post on the original Lip Colour + Primer here.

Clinique Pop Liquid Matte Lip Colour + Primer

The spiel on the Clinique website states:

"Lightweight liquid lipstick covers lips with lush pigment and a modern matte finish. Wears all day. Moisturizing formula with built-in primer provides a smooth, even glide so lips feel as fresh as they look."

First up, let's talk packaging.

The lipstick is packaged in a square tube with a frosted base that lets you easily identify which shade you're picking up. The lid is the classic silver lid that is true to most of the Pop line, and screws on tightly to prevent accidental leakage. The applicator, a teardrop-shaped sponge as seen in the photo below, is great for spreading colour over your lips, but a little unwieldy as compared to the precise application that a doe-foot applicator affords.

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

I hope you've all been faring well of late. I've been loving the bright sunshine and warmer weather that's upon us now that it's spring! It's also a lot easier on this blogger now that daylight savings has kicked in, because I have a lot more time to take photos instead of having to cram everything in on the weekend!

October has been a rather heavy haul month for me. It started off with one or two things and then just snowballed from there. To be honest though, most of what I bought was either something I had really wanted for ages (I'm looking at you MAC and Charlotte Tilbury) and the rest I chose to stock up on since the opportunity presented itself (this is all you Sephora, ColourPop and Mecca)! Either way, a part of me is feeling quite guilty (I can't be the only one who feels guilt when I've 'treated myself' a bit too much, can I?) while the rest of me is exulting in all my pretty new beauty goodies! Let's take a look, shall we? Word of warning, this is going to be quite a large post so do bear with me!

First up, we have a single lipstick from the MAC Selena limited edition (two dangerous words if I ever heard them) collection. I first heard about this collection months ago and I'd been hanging out for it ever since! Selena was one of my favourite singers, 'Dreaming of You' was literally the first song I ever fell in love with and I also fell in love with J. Lo when I saw her play the part in the movie (also titled Selena). For those of you who don't know her, Selena was a Latin American singer, songwriter, actress and fashion designer who was tragically shot dead by an ex-employee at the age of 24. While 'Dreaming of You' was my favourite song, I picked up 'Como La Flor' instead, as I preferred the Amplified formula and the shade. This collection sold out within minutes of its release in the US, but strangely, is still very much available on the MAC Australia website, so it's not too late to grab something if you're keen. I also got a free sample of strobe cream which is always nice.

MAC Selena Como La Flor

Next, ColourPop, a brand you all know that I absolutely love...had a free shipping deal. Now, all their products are extremely affordable but international shipping is always a killer, so I couldn't not stock up! I bought two more highlighters, 7 shadows (including a collaboration quad) and five lip products (an Ultra Matte, two more Ultra Satins and two Metallics). Most were from the new Fall Collection. I'll review them in a separate post but here are photos of everything I picked up.

ColourPop Haul

The two highlighters are Might Be and Wisp, and I honestly love them both.

Friday, October 7, 2016

I wanted to share some quick and simple nail art I did recently using the dry brush technique. In case you're wondering what the dry brush technique is, you simply scrape off almost all the polish off your brush until it's almost dry, then stroke it across the nail! It actually feels quite therapeutic, and you can get different patterns by alternating brush stroke directions and also changing colours.

Before I get any further, I do apologise for the smudge of red polish on my ring finger cuticle bed...I was rushing to take photos and didn't notice it at the time!

The dry brush manicure.

I used three Sally Hansen Miracle Gel polishes in Dig Fig, Birthday Suit and Game of Chromes. I used Birthday Suit as my base polish on all my nails except my ring finger, where I used Dig Fig instead. I then simply used the dry brush technique to use the remaining two shades on each nail, alternating directions with each stroke. I wasn't overly impressed with the design when I first did it, but it was quite late so I left it to the next day, and by then, it had grown on me so I decided to keep it!

The Made Up Maiden is a Melbourne based beauty blog written by Nalini, a young professional with a great love for all beauty products (but is especially fixated on makeup, nail polish and fragrances).
Working in a male dominated industry by day, she moonlights as a beauty blogger by night, and is always on the lookout for new products to fall in love with! She loves exercising her creative side by showcasing various makeup and nail art looks on the blog.